Finding the Customer of your Dreams

When I think about working with my ideal client, I have to decide which hat to wear. There are 30 hours each week when I wear the fiber artist and entrepreneur's hat. This flamboyant chapeau is a favorite of mine and one that I have worn for more than 2 decades. You can bet there is always a romantic bird feather and lots of frilly silk on this hat, as the creative part of me always comes out when I pop it on my head!

There is another part of my entrepreneurial brain that needs to be adorned as I work with the ideal nutrition and wellness client. As a budding Integrative Health Coach, I wear a curious sort of hat that helps me to ask important questions and amplifies my client's answers. I truly want to understand the needs and goals of each of my wellness clients...I want to be the perfect match for them.

Do you have the need to seek out and serve the ideal client? Have you ever caught yourself trying to be All to Everyone? What kind of language do you share with the folks that are your ideal customer or client, and how can you be involved in a conversation using this language?

Top Tips for Meeting the Customer of Your Dreams

Focus on your strengths. Do you have clarity about what it is that you have to offer as skills, resources, finished products, or counsel? If you have clarity about what it is you have to offer and the niche that you serve, the right kind of customers will more easily relate to you.

Practice saying "No". When I first began doing private commissions as a fiber artist, I thought it was important to say "Yes" to each and every request. I have learned that when I say "No Thanks" to the wrong kind of project, I open myself up to many opportunities to allow the right kind of work to come into my space.

Choose your playground wisely. Have you been intoxicated by the Internet? It is easy for me to feel the desire to participate on all the channels of social media and marketing that being an online boutique affords me. This intoxication literally diluted my success, and I have learned to limit myself to only those platforms I can consistently and sincerely manage. How about you?

Nurture your team. As a follow-up to narrowing my focus, I have also had to get real about those important business and creative tasks I am better off delegating to talented others. As I work with my health coaching clients, my time needs to be spent speaking directly to individuals, so I hire the help I need to do things like publish newsletters and create marketing documents. As I have created my own process and procedures, with the help of talented others, I have learned to understand how to nurture my team and myself. I feel good about counting on experts and their guidance, and I do my best to make sure they know how much I appreciate them!

You are outstanding in your field!

There are efficiencies in small business management that help me be better available to my ideal clients. Sharing these ideas is a practical matter that may help you in your enterprise. You, too, have wonderful ideas that would surely help me, and I invite you to share as well!

Beyond the practical, I know that there are millions of people in the world who, like me, and perhaps like you, love fiber art, natural and ecochic home decor, and birds. There are also many millions who seek to improve their wellness and happiness quotient. I have proven to myself that finding the perfect people to serve with my passionate skills and voice is not really a matter of connecting with ALL those millions of like others.

It is more, I believe, about sharing my unique vision about natural beauty and beautiful wellness. The clarity of purpose I have about my offerings is the best way I have found to connect with the clients of my dreams. Take a moment every day to connect with your own inner purpose, as you, too, may find that this simple focus shines a light that enables your perfect customers to find you and embrace you.

Thanks for stopping by,
Georgianne

Are you Well Educated? What are you Afraid to Learn?

Garden of Eden, by Georgianne Holland

Fiber artists are often educated in fields other than art. Like actors and artists of all mediums, our creative output as artists is often supplemented by another field -- endeavors often unrelated to the fiber art we create. Singers wait tables in fancy restaurants to pay the rent, photographers teach history in high school, and so on it goes. Some of these supplemental jobs require a huge investment in education and others do not. What is your educational status? Do you consider yourself to be well educated in the field that is your primary source of income? Are you a creative entrepreneur who considers herself to be self-taught? Are there lifestyle situations you face today that, if time allowed, you'd benefit from some additional expertise?

Creative people like me are often self-taught through many hours of experimentation, trial and error, and good old book-learning. The textile and fiber arts communities of Great Britain are inspirational to me because they have many influential college and guild programs to help fiber enthusiasts become professional practitioners. In the spirit of that example, I recently researched where in Colorado a fiber folk artist like myself (self-taught), could pursue a college-level education. Have you ever looked into this option for yourself?

Artist Tom Lundberg is my new fascination on this topic of higher education and fiber art. Since 1979, Tom has been a Professor in the Department of Art at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. He is the coordinator of the BFA and MFA programs in fiber media. It makes my heart sing to think of a program such as this in a neighboring town! Tom has accomplished what so many of my contemporaries dream about: he has established himself as an artist who uses embroidery as his medium. Extensively exhibited in solo shows and select international venues, this award-winning fiber artist is someone I study today as a source of inspiration.

What do you study today? Are you a lifetime student, or did you hang up your number 2 pencil and notebook years and years ago?

There are so many topics a creative person can study and add to the ways in which we are educated. I recently heard about Babs Didner in Texas. "Babs Didner never learned how to cook. She grew up the youngest in a large family in which her mom and oldest sister ran the kitchen. 'I was always totally intimidated by cooking,' says Didner, 50, a school administrator in Austin, Texas, in a recent issue of Experience Life! Magazine. "My friend Michelle loves to cook, so we’d get together and she’d explain cooking basics to me while we fixed our food. Sometimes we’d follow recipes, but she knew how to cook without recipes, too, and she’d explain ways to do that, like how to thicken a mixture or what spices went with what type of food.”

I love this example of facing the fear of learning something creative and important like cooking healthy food. It has been said that cooking is the only art form that you consume. What have you been putting off as a new skill? Think about your circle of friends for a minute. Not everything you desire to learn requires enrollment in a bachelors' program in a university (however exciting that would be!). When I think about the wide variety of people I am happy to call friends, I know that there is boundless expertise and kindness they are willing to share. For instance, I have a great friend who is a professional photographer, and he has tirelessly helped me understand how to improve the photographs I use on my online Nestle And Soar shop. What could you teach a friend that would add to their success at home or on the job?

I am a strong believer in Adult Education. I didn't finish my college education until I was 39 years old, with a 15-year focus on raising my children in between my first attempt and my final diploma. I loved going to college with other adults who were on a mission to learn something important and knew exactly what field they wanted to master! And my continuing education continues. I am in the process of becoming an Integrated Health Coach, pursuing my education through the Institute of Integrated Nutrition in New York. This year-long program will enable to me to add Health Coaching to my art practice here in Colorado and share my message of a vibrant, balanced lifestyle to new friends and old. So like Tom Lundberg, I will be an exhibited artist and helping folks learn at the same time...it is a wonderful combination!

I would love to hear what area of expertise you are studying today! Please leave a comment and let me know.

Thanks for stopping by,
Georgianne

What Makes your To-Do List Today?

Lists, lists, lists! There are To-Do lists, Grocery lists, and Goal lists in front of me today. Last night while I should have been sleeping, I was writing in my head a list for next Thursday. When this happens to me, I scoot out of our bedroom and actually write the list on paper, hoping it will let my brain relax so that sleep can return. Are you a List Master, too?

When my work days as a fiber artist are in full-throttle, I truly count on my To-Do Lists. Writing down a plan for the day is a fantastic tool for a creative entrepreneur. When I formalize the cascading options, requests, and tasks for each day, I can hold myself accountable in specific ways, and that frees up space in every day for creativity. Having been self-employed for years now, this is one secret to my success!

A question I often ask myself is, "Should the task I'm thinking about be on today's list, or on the list of some future day?"

If you are a list-master, do you feel excited when you look at today's To-Do? Ideally, you should. I know there will be dreadful items on some lists, and my advice on those days is to tackle those items in your highest-energy part of the day. For me, that would be first thing in the morning, after my second cup of coffee. By then, the world has woken up and most folks are available by phone or email. Reaching out to others is often a component of key To-Do tasks. My philosophy regarding actions that are necessary but don't excite me is to get it done, cross it off, and the clear the way for your exciting tasks!

There is another benefit to be a list-maker. Knowing what you want to accomplish helps you say "No Thanks" to all of the rest! As your day unfolds, you may be asked to do something unexpected. Happens all the time to me. Or, as your day unfolds you may dream up a bold new action that sounds fantastic! Either of these additional items could distract you from your consciously written To-Do list for today. Here's what I do:

• Take a pause

• Take a breath

• Make a decision

• Write it down for today or say out loud "Not Today"

It is important to know what will make your list today as well as what will not. I am a people-pleasing person, so learning to gently say no to myself and others is a skill that is important to practice. It has been liberating for me to learn to say, "What you are asking of me won't fit on my list today. Can I get back to you about a future date?"

I love saying that!! Do you say that often enough?

Next on my list is going to the grocery store. That's another great kind of list to follow...as best as I can, anyway.

Thanks for stopping by,
Georgianne